I also completely agree with what you have said.
Though I feel like Sainristil is too small for Gute to take early, though I used to mock him with a later pick all the time. Not saying he's not worth the higher pick, just that I think Gute factors in size more than Gute is willing to publicly admit.
The order in which the OL are taken is going to be extremely extremely interesting to me. As there is no consensus on order, and some of them, I question if they're really that good.
I almost feel like OL development has declined and teams are just in need of more quality OL, and this is a better crop than usual in terms of quantity and they're getting excited by it. But some of them are straight up projects which, yes have HUGE potential.... but they also should have developed a heck of a lot more than they have in college and it scares me that they're basically all potential right now.
Before TE Kraft stepped it up, I kept mock drafting TE Ja'Tavion Sanders to the Packers.
I'm with you on OT JC Lathem, sometimes I feel like people are drafting results of a program more so that an actual player, which you see this with teams that are dominate over a period of time.
QB Matt Leinart, USC was a big one of those for me, yes the USC team was absolutely dominate, but you turn on the film and I wouldn't dare consider him before the 3rd round and maybe not then. Lots of throws to tall WRs over tiny CBs. And I think he got taken in the top 15. But the players talent wasn't good, but the college results were there.
Another one that confuses me like that is
OT Jonah Williams, Alabama which the Bengals took in the top 15. I mean all due respect to Williams, he's not a bad player, but he also, in my opinion, clearly wasn't a top 20 player. He was taken one pick for OLB Gary. And looking back on that draft, a lot of questionable OL were taken in the 1st round and Gute might.of gotten a steal in comparison with OG Jenkins in the 2nd round.
But Williams was a very good player with GREAT technique but lacked any sort of elite physical traits like athleticism or power, he's main thing were extremely limited mistakes and playing extremely smart, so his potential floor was extremely high, but his talent ceiling was extremely low. But also the SEC hype helped too. But I didn't think there was a chance they would keep Williams at LT in the pros and that's exactly what they did. I was thinking elite OG, or maybe RT.
I feel like JC Lathem is in a similar boat, though I think Latham just turned 21, so he could still be growing/fast improving. But he didn't grade out like Williams did. But he's also at RT.
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